Joey Payeur
That familiar Homecoming feeling—the one followed soon after by another spirit-crushing loss—was coming on strong.
Then the Muskies brought the home crowd to its feet with a drive that may be looked back on as a key moment in the team’s season.
Brandon Whitecrow hit Cole Kowalski with a 23-yard touchdown pass with 58 seconds left for the decisive score as Fort High (2-1) earned a 27-25 victory over the Daniel McIntyre Maroons (1-2) in WHSFL action Friday afternoon.
“It was a sideline roll right and it’s a bread-and-butter play for us,” Muskie head coach Mike Cuzzolino said about the play that led to Fort High winning its first Homecoming game since 2008.
“Cole is good at getting open and has great hands,” he noted.
It was Kowalski’s third touchdown catch of the day after he hauled in a 14-yarder to open the scoring in the first quarter, then caught a one-yard toss on a play-action pass in the second quarter to make it 14-3.
The Muskies led 21-10 at halftime, with Doug deBernardeaux racing 82 yards to paydirt on a kick-off return to provide the other points right after Kevin Ebron had connected with Justice MacInnis on a 40-yard scoring pass to pull the visitors to within four points.
But the Maroons’ defence stiffened in the second half, allowing them to take a 25-21 lead.
Ebron was on the pitching end of catch-and-run plays of 43 yards to Kieran Buskell and 58 yards to MacInnis for his second major, with Ebron running in a two-point conversion following the latter score.
But then the Muskie defence, which had interceptions by Baeley Fulford and Dylan Ossachuk, along with a fumble recovery by Kenton Bowles, made a big second-down stop to force a Maroons’ punt with 2:06 to go.
Whitecrow completed passes of six and 30 yards to deBernardeaux, then sailed the ball towards the end zone, where Kowalski completed the touchdown hat trick with a leaping grab.
Cam Lidkea, who had converted the Muskies’ first three touchdowns, had his point-after attempt blocked to keep the Maroons within a field goal.
Ebron got the ball back on his own 19-yard line but on third-and-10, he delivered the last of several overthrows that fell incomplete.
The Muskies decided to run the ball three times rather than kneel down and kill the clock, turning the ball over on downs to give Daniel McIntyre one more shot with two seconds left.
But Ebron’s “Hail Mary” landed untouched to spark an enthusiastic victory celebration involving the players and fans who finally had a happy Homecoming to enjoy.
“They showed a lot of heart when it mattered and some true character that I haven’t seen in previous Muskie teams,” lauded Cuzzolino.
Rolling into town this Friday for a 3 p.m. match-up will be the Kenora Broncos (3-1), who likely will be the Muskies’ toughest test yet.
After a year playing in the Vidruk Division (‘AA’), the Broncos are looking like a force in the Currie Division (‘A’) so far this season after handing the College Lorette Collegiate Scorpions (3-1) their first defeat by an 18-3 margin this past Friday in Kenora.
